Begin Again
by Shoogalooga
Summary: Dean gets injured and forgets who Cas is. This is the story of him relearning everything about the time that he has lost.


So, I saw this on a prompt a while ago about amnesia and I originally thought about Cas getting amnesia, but then again, that's already kind of happened. So I came up with...well, this :)

* * *

"Sammy!" Dean yelled as the djinn came up behind his little brother. Sam whipped around and stabbed the djinn with his blood-soaked knife. An infernal noise ripped its way out of the creature's throat as Sam jammed the knife in all the way to the hilt. Dean breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Sam turn around with a look of achievement on his face after the djinn had collapsed at his feet. He walked over and gave him a hug. He patted his back and walked toward the door of the abandoned warehouse with his little brother close behind him. However, they both stopped when they heard a small racket behind them. Dean pulled out the demon-killing knife as he slowly faced the other direction.

"God dammit, Cas," he said as he saw the trench-coated angel walk around the corner. "What are you even doing here?" Dean asked as he relaxed his fighting stance a little. Cas didn't have time to answer that question, and all Dean saw before being flung across a room and into some metal scaffolding was a look of utter horror on Cas' face.

* * *

"Dean . . . I'm sorry I didn't make it there in time to warn you. I'm sorry I came at all. If you hadn't turned around, you would have been ready. We wouldn't be here. But I was just trying to protect you and your brother. I was trying to do my job as your friend. All I did was hurt you." Cas looked morosely at Dean's prone form in the hospital bed. Little did Dean know that the only thing keeping Cas slightly sane was the small rise and fall of Dean's chest.

After Cas and Sam had dispatched the other djinn that neither of the brothers had known about, they ran over to find Dean. They found him crumpled up on the ground, not moving. Sam thought the worst. Cas could tell he was alive, but only just. They took him to the nearest hospital, told them it was a construction accident; he had fallen off of some scaffolding. It wasn't completely untrue. The doctors said that the swelling of his brain had gone down on its own, leaving them to forgo any kind of surgery to relieve the pressure. They told Sam and Cas that he would wake up any day now. But that didn't make Cas feel any better. He knew that he was the one that caused the pain that Dean was having to endure. He could see in Sam's eyes that he did not think that, but Cas was not going to forgive himself until he could see it in Dean's eyes that he didn't blame him either. Then he might contemplate forgiveness.

Cas looked up as he heard Sam coming toward the door. He did not care to see more pity in the younger Winchester's face. He gave Dean's hand one last squeeze before popping out of the room with a slight flutter of his wings.

* * *

Dean was in heaven. He had to be. How else could he explain that his family was back together again? His whole family. He was sitting at the bar at the Roadhouse, chatting with Jo as she cleaned the bar. Off to his left, Sam and Ash were playing a game of pool. Ash was kicking Sam's trash. At one of the tables, John, Mary, Ellen, and Bobby sat, talking quietly to themselves and smiling over old memories. Dean relaxed a bit, cold beer in his hand. This was the happiest he had ever been. Outside, he heard some kind of truck backing up, beeping loudly. He turned to Jo. "You getting some kind of0 delivery today?" he asked.

She gave him a strange look. "No, why?"

"Well, someone must be dropping something off. There's a truck backing in outside. Can't you hear it?"

Jo just chuckled. "Maybe you should put that beer down. I think your ears are ringing a bit. There's nothing outside." With that she left to clean off one of the tables that had been used recently by another customer.

Dean looked at the people around him. None of them seemed to hear the beeping outside, but to him, it kept getting louder. He stood up from the bar and made his way toward the door. He heard Sam call his name, but he just waved impatiently at him. This incessant beeping was distracting him from his family and he was going to go shut it off. When he opened the door, he didn't see any truck. Then again, he could barely see anything through the blinding light. He squinted his eyes, but all he could see was white. "Dean?" he heard Sam say again, but he could barely hear it over the beeping now. He tried to raise his arm to cover his eyes, but his whole body felt lethargic. "Dean?" Sam seemed closer now so Dean tried to open his eyes again.

"Sammy?" he slurred out when he saw shapes that looked kind of like his gigantic baby brother leaning over his. Had he fallen down? Was that bright light the sun? Maybe he really was drunk. That would explain a lot.

"Oh, my God, Dean!" Sam leaned further over Dean, blocking most of the light. Dean blinked furiously, trying to focus on his brother's face.

"What? Why are you just staring at me? Help me stand up," he said irritably. Sam looked at him like he had lost his mind.

"Dean, you're in a hospital. You've been out for the past five days." Dean stared up at his brother for a long time while he ran that through his mind. Five days? He'd been in the Roadhouse up until a minute ago. He didn't understand what was going on around here.

In the back of his mind, he could tell that Sam was rambling, but he wasn't paying any attention. After a minute, he tuned back into what his brother was saying. "I need to tell Cas that you've woken up."

Dean did a double-take at that. "Why would Cas care if I was awake, let alone that I was in a hospital? We didn't exactly part on the best of terms, did we?"

Sam just stared at him. "Dean, it was an accident. That was never supposed to happen." Dean just rolled his eyes and looked away. Nothing was ever an accident in his life. Everything happened for a reason. "Dean, look. You know that Cas didn't do it on purpose. He's been tearing himself up for the past five days."

At that, Dean looked back at his brother. "He?" Dean emphasized. "You're not talking about Cassie?"

"Cassie? Who's Cassi—you mean that girl you hooked up with like eight years ago? No, I'm talking about Castiel. He's been worried sick."

Dean stared at Sam for a long moment before blurting out, "Who the hell is Castiel?"

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Dun dun dun! Okay, I know that's short, but it's just the beginning. So, rate, review. Let me know what you think. I'll try and get more in soon depending on the kind of response I get from you guys. School starts soon, so this is basically me trying to run away from my oncoming doom...


End file.
